Tag: Alex Hollings

The U.S. Navy’s new carrier-based refueling drone, the Boeing produced MQ-25 Stingray, took its first test flight on Thursday, potentially ushering in a new era of naval combat operations for the United States. Although not intended to serve as an armed aircraft, the carrier-launched autonomous refueler could help the U.S. Navy offset the tactical advantage […]

Grenades can traditionally be grouped into two categories: offensive and defensive. Defensive grenades are intended for use in circumstances where friendly and enemy positions are a known element, allowing for a greater degree of lethality (usually accomplished through shrapnel). Offensive grenades, on the other hand, are meant for use in the messy quagmire that is […]

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard Cutter Valiant intercepted a 40-foot long semi-submersible vessel carrying 12,000 pounds of cocaine and four smugglers. Vessels of that sort, commonly referred to as “narco subs,” travel while almost completely submerged in order to limit detection from the sea. As a result, the Coast Guard and American law enforcement […]

Despite sanctions and slow economic growth hindering Russia’s defense efforts, it has recently doubled down on efforts to establish a fearsome Navy, bolstered by powerful new submarine classes like the 170-meter long Borei. Not all of Russia’s naval assets are quite so powerful, however, as demonstrated by the loss of a Russian Navy tugboat named […]

American’s special operators have long relied on night vision goggles to give them the upper hand in low-light combat environments, but there are some real drawbacks to relying on that sort of equipment when your life depends on it. From issues with depth perception and peripheral vision to concerns about how the gear rides on […]

Despite a steady diet of movies and television shows depicting robots as extremely capable killing machines bent on taking over the planet in recent decades, real robots have long been a bit… clunky. The incredibly complex mechanics of maintaining one’s balance with a walking stride, for instance, comes easily to human beings that benefit from […]

A troubling new report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that at least 60,000 veterans killed themselves between 2008 and 2017, with suicide rates among veterans continuing to climb.  According to the report, 2017’s 6,100 veteran suicides represented a 2% increase over the previous year and a 6% increase since 2008. However, despite […]

On June 18, 1981, Lockheed’s F-117 Nighthawk took to the skies for the first time, forever changing the way warfare in the skies plays out. After decades of competing to field to the fastest or most powerful aerial platforms, the F-117 represented a transition away from brute force and toward technological supremacy. With a top speed […]

When I first moved to Georgia from the Boston area, one of the things I kept in mind was my proximity to a VA Medical Center, and according to my trusty GPS, my new home was only about an hour from the Atlanta VA hospital in Decatur. The VA Hospital I’d grown accustomed to in […]

That’s right – SOFREP is back. What began in 2012 as a small military blog quickly grew into a leading source for all-things related to Special Operations Forces (SOF), Foreign Policy, and Defense news. In 2018, our editorial team saw an opportunity to expand beyond our SOF focus, so the decision was made to broaden […]

From a journalistic perspective, covering the F-35 program can be a bit of a quagmire at times. The aircraft is undoubtedly among the most advanced and capable air platforms ever to take to the sky, but the plane’s development has also been a clinic in poor planning, over-spending, and the inherent flaws in putting an […]

The national security media sphere is just as prone to buzz words as any other realm of journalism, and one that has popped up with increasing frequency in the past few years is “hypersonic.” The term usually precedes a noun like “missile” or “drone” and evokes an almost childish sense of speed — hearkening back […]